News-Tribune editorial: Delays affected release of audit

Harry J. Otto

Jefferson City

This comes in response to the editorial from the Jefferson City News Tribune, which you printed in "What Others Are Saying" Sept. 15.

It is disappointing no one at the News-Leader took the time to get the state auditor's side of this issue and instead ran an inaccurate and inappropriate editorial from another newspaper that never bothered to get the facts about our audit.

If you had taken the time to ask, as many other members of the media did, you would have known that the two main reasons affecting the timing of the release of the governor's office audit were a tragic highway accident involving our in-charge auditor, and a three-week delay from the governor's office in giving us access to observe taxpayer-funded inventory.

Is it your contention that this office should stop releasing good audits 10 weeks before an election? Are you aware that the auditor runs in off-years so he can release reports on elected officials during election years?

An audit of Gov. Jay Nixon's office was long overdue since Auditor Tom Schweich's predecessor never did one. Missouri taxpayers have the right to know how their money is being spent, and the governor's office is no exception.

Further, Schweich has a 30-day rule where no audit that might impact an election is released by this office. The governor's office audit was released well in advance of that deadline.

To provide clarity for your readers, I also wanted to make sure you knew we gave the office of State Treasurer Clint Zweifel the highest rating possible on our scale, as well as the Medicaid fraud unit run by Attorney General Chris Koster. Both Zweifel and Koster are Democrats.

Thank you for the opportunity to share our side of the story. Voters deserve to know the truth, good or bad, about how their tax money is being spent.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

News-Tribune editorial: Delays affected release of audit

Jefferson City This comes in response to the editorial from the Jefferson City News Tribune, which you printed in 'What Others Are Saying' Sept. 15.